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Performance Info

KIM Su Jung (Director. Playwright. Choreographer. Leader of The Theater Maker New World.)

: Only coarseness and discomfort make theatre

You had been well-known as an actress and choreographer in various theatre works, and for the past few years you’ve been gaining attention as a director.

Originally I dreamed of becoming a musical actress. That’s why I studied acting in university, and devoted my twenties performing on stage. I liked dancing very much, and my wish to learn more was the only reason I signed up for dance classes. At the time, numerous productions tried to fuse theatre and dance, but I had the impression that there were limitations in the communication between the director, who asks for movements that express emotions, the choreographer, who is used to the language of dance, and the actor, who has to perform the actual movements. With the intention to explore further the relationship between speech and body, respectively the medium of theatre and dance, I continued my studies in choreography at graduate school and took part in various theatre productions as either choreographer or actress. Then, while working with friends from both dance and theatre, I took on the role of ‘dance-director’, which became my starting point as director.

My initial goal as director was to combine theatre and dance, and find a new form of performance, and this caused a thirst for text, as well as a desire to study theatre directing and playwriting properly. So once again, I continued my studies in theatre-directing and playwriting in graduate school. Meanwhile, as I became a 6th year member of the directors’ group No. 1, Hyewha-dong , it naturally shifted my focus to the society and its individuals, and it served as a turning point for me to change the name of my company into ‘The Theater Maker New World’.

As you were studying various fields and expanding the boundary of your activities, was there any work that influenced or became a turning point for you?

I took part in Step Memories – The return of the oppressed (directed by YOON Han Sol, 2012), a production by theatre company Green Pig. My experience as actress usually involved learning a way of working while being part of a conventional dramatic theatre, yet Green Pig’s work was an eye-opener to set aside the drama and see new forms of theatre-making, my first opportunity to experience collaborative creation.

While I was working with my company on Dear My Korea (2016), I felt confined by the enclosed space of the theatre. So I decided to free myself, from the theatre into real squares, to search for an audience. This initiated the year-long program of 2017, during which my company brought street performances to places hit by disasters, like the Sewol ferry disaster, collapse of Sampoong Department Store, fire in Sealand Youth Training Center, etc., titled Dance of Oblivion_Sewol ferry (2017).

Dance and theatre, playwriting and directing, and indoor and street performances might differ in denotation and appearance, but your persistent focus on the materiality of collective bodies, and the relationship between group and individual, can be found in all of your works.

It is not wholly my own decision, what to tell and how. While working as an actress, I disliked the hierarchy that deprived the right to make decisions and to speak, with the director as an exception. That’s why my company follows the rule that every member should share opinions and make decisions together.

The reason why I’m fixated on the relationship between group and individual is very simple. It’s the theme that my colleagues and I are directly facing in life, and willing to make into a performance. My work always deals with movement and dance. Maybe you won’t recognize it that much, for it’s different from the conventional idea of dance, but my biggest issue is always body and dance.

We discuss freely to decide the theme, but as for the form, I’m looking for something that is unachievable if not by theatre. It has to be a form that exposes things as they really are, and not idealize them, so that you have no choice but to face the reality, and face a part of who you are that you tried to deny. You might feel uncomfortable by the coarseness and rawness, but in fact to hide and beautify something can be most violent.

The estrangement I felt while working as an actress, that is, being a character soaked up in its own fantasy world without really seeing the I in reality, and the reality itself, is the last thing I want in my company, which is our new world. As long as this condition is met, the style of the narrative does not matter much.

Therefore, pornography made both theatre critics and audience pay close attention to director KIM Su Jung and the company New World, and can be still recognized as the most impressive work of yours.

It was premiered in 2015. This piece can be summarized into one sentence: social perception, structure and power penetrate into our unconscious to leave us brainwashed, but within this endless circle of repetition we get numb to them at some point so that, in the end, it is ourselves that we see in this endless repetition of pornography. The play itself has no ending. It ended with the audience protesting or walking out, as a result of the actor repeatedly acting out scenes of self-abuse.

This piece was the company’s first attempt at a collaborative creation. We stated everything we wanted to say, honest about how much we did and didn’t know, just as it is, made statements about everything as honest as it gets, and this was the most frightening, difficult, painful, yet the most exciting work because of that. I tried out everything that I have been taught not to while studying theatre or performance.

Do you have any thoughts, concerns or future plans in terms of your work?

Frankly speaking, I have a lot of questions more than anything. Are we really enjoying theatre-making? Can we continue doing theatre? How long and by what means can we keep this company together? I don’t think I will keep working within the structure of company for the rest of my life. I want to offer many opportunities for external activities to the actors, and as for myself, I have started to be interested in the medium of video, which enables me to meet people in the quickest way.

But right now, it is theatre that opens up my doors to the world. It is theatre that teaches me how to live life to its fullest. For the moment, to live and work well for me is to confront pain, to look inside myself, and to recognize reality as it is, and I hope these thoughts will reach the audience.

Production Details

Director
KIM Su Jung

Reference

E-mailnewworld_s@naver.com

Program

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